Advice? Any advice about the path to take, and any pireps on the three
engine shops mentioned (or any others) will be most humbly and
gratefully received.

If you're just replacing the cam, you don't need an overhaul shop.

Either way, replacing the cam or the complete overhaul, I'd go with a local shop
rather than shipping parts all over the country.

That's a great point.

We have been very happy with our decision to use our local shop to
rebuild our O-540 in 2002. Although you still end up shipping *some*
parts all over the place, and (of course) the new engine parts come
from the factory. (In our case, Superior, which has allowed us to
dodge ALL of the Lycoming O-540 ADs thus far...)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"